Just because you live in suburbia doesn’t mean you can’t have a farm.

Growing Wheat in My Own Backyard

July 13, 2009

I’ve been thinking about it since January, and I’m still mulling how to make it work on my property, but I’d like to try growing wheat. I won’t pretend that I could even begin to serve my family’s grain needs on a small, suburban plot of land, but I’d like to give it a go, just to see what it’s like. I’ll call it a novelty crop; it’s something to keep me entertained during the winter.

The Northeast is not known for its prolific grain harvest, but I was heartened when I found this article from the Boston Globe about the resurgence of grain farming in the Northeast. The idea is starting to catch on.

What seems harder, though, is finding basic information on the Internet about growing wheat. There is a glut of technical farming information for high-yield operations, but a dearth of info on things like when to plant and when to harvest. I did find a few blogs, which are helpful.

What I’ve gathered so far is that I can plant hard red winter wheat around September, and harvest in June. At first I thought I had the perfect solution to a winter cover crop, until I realized that lots of things have to get started in the ground before June. So where will I put the wheat? I considered taking a local community plot for the winter, but I would run into the same problem: people want to plant before June.

Normally I would tear up the yard and put in a new growing area, but my husband and I are still at odds over the lawn. He is right on one count: I should plan my growing areas better. And since I’m approaching wheat as a novelty, I wouldn’t call it great planning.

For now, my best solution is to use half of The Suburban Farm–the new half–where the watermelons and sunflowers are growing. It’s a small section, maybe 8×10′, but I’m sure I can get a nice harvest of wheat berries, which is all I really want.

I think grain is usually grown in the US where water is more scarce. We have such an abundance of rain that it is more profitable to grow fruit and vegetables. Combine that with the high cost of land in the NE and it is not financially feasible to grow grain. Grain only for a short while became profitable because of the huge spike in grain prices.

I always dream about growing my own grain. I did grow a very small (think tiny) patch of wheat once about 20 years ago just for kicks. I’m thinking a good summer crop would be some kind(s) of dried bean. It would have to be a bush bean (which is good if you have a large area) because you need something that matures fast. Grains and beans are a good pair, both nutritionally and in the garden.

I’m curious about winter wheat. We have sown several three of our twelve raised bed sections with a winter cover crop consisting of barley, peas and crimson clover. I’m interested in the bean discussion since I’m aware that I could stick some beans in to let them get started (break through), then harvest the grain and lay the stalks down around the beans as compost (Fukuoka method). It would be a no-till method and if correct, a nitrogen fixing gift to the soil. Thoughts anyone ? reply to bdchowell@hotmail.com… thanks !

Hi
I grow a small patch of winter wheat and a patch of hulless barley in my backyard. I have a rotation that starts with grain being planted in early Oct. which gets harvested in mid June followed by a dry bean which is harvested in late Sept, which is followed by garlic in Oct. This keeps the beds busy and requires additions of compost but works really well. A nice winter time meal of beans and barley with some buttered whole wheat bread is awesome. You might be surprised at the amounts of grain that can come from a small bed.

I’ve been wanting to try this for years now. I think a front yard full of “amber waves of grain” rippling in the wind would look great, but I’m pretty sure my HOA would disagree 😉 . We have a good-sized backyard though, so I think I’m going to give it a shot.